The Pivot of Civilization eBook

While it is necessary to point out the importance
of “heredity” as a determining factor
in human life, it is fatal to elevate it to the position
of an absolute. As with environment, the concept
of heredity derives its value and its meaning only
in so far as it is embodied and made concrete in generations
of living organisms. Environment and heredity
are not antagonistic. Our problem is not that
of “Nature vs. Nurture,” but rather
of Nature x Nurture, of heredity multiplied by environment,
if we may express it thus. The Eugenist who overlooks
the importance of environment as a determining factor
in human life, is as short-sighted as the Socialist
who neglects the biological nature of man. We
cannot disentangle these two forces, except in theory.
To the child in the womb, said Samuel Butler, the
mother is “environment.” She is,
of course, likewise “heredity.” The
age-old discussion of “Nature vs. Nurture”
has been threshed out time after time, usually fruitlessly,
because of a failure to recognize the indivisibility
of these biological factors. The opposition or
antagonism between them is an artificial and academic
one, having no basis in the living organism.

The great principle of Birth Control offers the means
whereby the individual may adapt himself to and even
control the forces of environment and heredity.
Entirely apart from its Malthusian aspect or that
of the population question, Birth Control must be recognized,
as the Neo-Malthusians pointed out long ago, not “merely
as the key of the social position,” and the
only possible and practical method of human generation,
but as the very pivot of civilization. Birth Control
which has been criticized as negative and destructive,
is really the greatest and most truly eugenic method,
and its adoption as part of the program of Eugenics
would immediately give a concrete and realistic power
to that science. As a matter of fact, Birth Control
has been accepted by the most clear thinking and far
seeing of the Eugenists themselves as the most constructive
and necessary of the means to racial health.(7)